It has been teased for a long time, developed for a long time, and hidden from public view for a short time. Today, officials from Chevrolet and the leadership/drivers at John Force Racing pulled the cover off of the 2016 Camaro nitro funny car body that will be used by John Force Racing (and presumably others) going forward. The car carries on the tradition of the modern funny car body with its narrowed “dog house”, slab sides, and long sloping nose. The addition of an integrated splitter to work air up and over the body is interesting as are the more defined front “fenders” that are seen on this body which others currently do not exhibit. There is a depression in the center of the roof panel that is shared by the production Camaro as well.
Like all funny car bodies made for modern nitro racing, this isn’t really an exercise in creating something that looks identical to a factory car but rather something that does the best job of getting through the air and helping teams succeed in pushing their stuff more than 300mph in the distance of 1,000ft. You can love it, you can hate it, you can curse it until you are blue in the face but this is the highest tech, and likely the most aero efficient funny car body ever developed.
Here’s the full release from Chevrolet –
INDIANAPOLIS – Today Chevrolet and 16-time NHRA champion John Force introduced the all-new 2016 Camaro SS Funny Car that he’ll race this weekend at the NHRA Kansas Nationals, in Topeka, Kan.
The new Funny Car body is the first based on the sixth-generation Camaro SS. Force’s teammates Courtney Force and Robert Hight will introduce new Camaro SS Funny Cars later this season.
“I started my career in a Chevrolet and I couldn’t be more excited to put this new Camaro SS Funny Car on the track,” said Force. “With all the assistance from Chevrolet, it not only looks great, it’s designed to perform better than anything we’ve had before, with a shape that should help us get down the track quicker and with greater stability.”
The team conducted computational analysis and scale-model wind tunnel testing to help give the new body the airflow management qualities necessary to deliver the downforce required by the 10,000-horsepower supercharged race car, as it accelerates from 0 to 330 mph in less than 4 seconds – and in a mere 1,000 feet.
Among the unique aerodynamic elements is a new, integrated front splitter that helps direct more air over the body to increase downforce. The design also incorporates new, dual blow-out – or “burst” – panels, safety devices that relieve underbody pressure to help keep the body on the chassis in the event of an engine failure.
Additionally, the new body, which is lighter than John Force Racing’s previous Camaro Funny Car bodies, carries the distinctive styling signatures of the 2016 Camaro SS’s front- and rear-end designs.
“The 2016 Camaro has been a great success in the showroom and Chevrolet is proud to contribute to its debut in NHRA’s Funny Car class,” said Jim Campbell, Chevrolet U.S. vice president of performance vehicles and motorsports. “It joins the 2016 COPO Camaro in the Sportsman classes, strengthening Chevrolet’s presence in drag racing, which dates back nearly 60 years.”
Camaro at the drag strip
Camaro’s legacy in drag racing dates back to 1967, when longtime Chevy racers such as Dave Strickler and Bill “Grumpy” Jenkins, pushed the new pony car up through the Super Stock ranks. Jenkins would go on to pioneer the new Pro Stock class, giving the Camaro its first win there in 1970.
Enterprising racers and dealers used Chevrolet’s COPO (Central Office Production Order) special order system to create high-performance Camaro models intended for one thing only: winning on the drag strip. That included the legendary 1969 Camaro ZL-1, powered by an all-aluminum 427 originally developed for the Can-Am road racing series.
Camaro Funny Cars also began appearing on strips shortly after the car’s introduction, shaking up the burgeoning class with Chevy power. Bruce Larson and Dick Harrell were leaders, pushing their blown fuel “floppers” into the 7-second range.
Texan Lee Shepherd lead Camaro into the 1980s, with four consecutive Pro Stock titles, his performance enabled by the groundbreaking Big Block engines developed by his partners David Reher and Charles “Buddy” Morrison.
More recently, Camaro has become a fixture of the Pro and Sportsman ranks. Behind the Pro tree, John Force Racing has returned Camaro to the Funny Car class, while Camaro drivers have dominated the Pro Stock field – including consecutive championships in 2014 and 2015.
The Sportsman classes are driven by the COPO Camaro, Chevrolet’s factory-built race car that uses a production body and specially developed Chevrolet racing engines. New 2016 COPO Camaro models are hitting the strip this season, advancing the COPO legacy and pushing Chevrolet drivers farther and faster.
“Racing improves the breed and that’s why Chevrolet races,” said Campbell. “The wins we record on the track help us design better cars customers will buy in the showroom.”
Founded in 1911 in Detroit, Chevrolet is now one of the world’s largest car brands, doing business in more than 115 countries and selling around 4.0 million cars and trucks a year. Chevrolet provides customers with fuel-efficient vehicles that feature engaging performance, design that makes the heart beat, passive and active safety features and easy-to-use technology, all at a value. More information on Chevrolet models can be found at www.chevrolet.com.
The head on shot looks mean, wish it looked more like a real car but at 300 aero is everything
What year Camaro is it again?
Wow, it is striking how much it looks like the street Camaro, who could confuse it for anything else ? Such a glaring difference from the old body and Mustang , right lol. What a non story
My mind returned to screen saver after the first few lines… Woke up in a faceful of coffee on the table…..Yawn….
I guess they couldn’t get the camaro head light decal kit and used the dodge charger one instead
Wow looks like they fired up the decal maker….
Yaaaawn!!!! what kind of car is it again? I mean without the stickers. might as well call it a Yugo. And is he going to slap some Chevrolet LS7 stickers on those Hemi valve covers?
I wonder how his sponsors, past and present, feel about giving their money to a guy who had no means of income other than begging money from sponsors and now lives in a $10 million dollar house and continues to beg money to keep his family employment agency going all done with other peoples money. Is this a great country or what !
Tough crowd! blah blah LS-7 stickers, blah Hemi, blah decals, blah blah blah.
Looks pretty aero slick to me
Wow it looks so much different than the other turtle shells…..
Nice door stop. Funny the article keeps referring to the last camaro when to the best of my knowledge that was still the ford developed mustang with camaro decals. Not that any of them look much different now anyway.
As long as GM can continue convincing NHRA to keep the ban on Boss 429 (bore-spacing) engines for the Pro Series racing …the sport will decline like the NASCAR TOYOTA series has declined.
Or like the INDY series…. when they made everyone only use ONLY HONDA motors ….the fans fled. Now they can use Honda or Chevrolet…but nothing else…and Hot Rodders are still banned from Indy racing.
Let Ford and Dodge back into the mix all race series..
Hey, NHRA, you reading any of these comments? No one cares. They all just look like lumps
of plastic left in the sun too long…
not sure where the camaro is in the picture
A year and a half and this is the best part, they only have that one, yes 1, body. They do have the distinction of their car looking less like the one it imitates than anyone else, or any other brand, whatever. Why did Ford pull all their funding again? I’m up for a good rant, let’s start throwing darts a Pro Stock, it does have one foot in the grave and the other on a banana peel.
Ooooh look! A funny blob!
How uneventful. I am with the rest of the commenters- this thing looks as much like a Camaro as it does a Packard. TF and FC are out of date classes that cost too much and give too little to the sponsor to stay alive much longer.
Shame of it all is that Funny car is fun to watch live. Its crazy. The shear speed, the noise the smell. Its all awesome.
But the lump of a body, the rolling sticker boards of sponsor logos take away from all the heart of the sport.
Cars used to have names, and character. Now they are all but the same with a different color and sponsor stickers.
Prostock, Top fuel and Funny car all suck for that reason. At least in promod you have variety in body, engine, power adder and the cars are fast. In the radial world you have everything from legit promods with wedge type bodies to stock based Foxes and corvettes. The cars are rolling billboards either. No wonder they can fill the stands.
Drag racing is evolving, I wont say its returning grass routes because promods and radial stuff is still damn expensive, but its less a (visible)corporate money machine and more about the guy in the next lane.
Why GM spending $1 to sponsor funny car is beyond me. Ford was the smart one by focusing their marketing dollars in the NHRA on the Cobra Jet sportsman program where the cars actually look like something you can buy. If the bodies were forced to fit a more stock looking roof and front end profile like they did up until the 90’s, you might get more interest from passing fans.
That’s a Camaro?
I’d rather see them run these cars with no bodies at all. Atleast they wouldn’t look like cartoon mobiles.
2nd pass he tags the wall.Wonder if they will test body number 2 on Roberts car Monday.
“Racing improves the breed” . . . Not in this case. A cartoon of a cartoon.
Reminds me of what used to happen when you put model cars in mom’s oven ….
” A cartoon of a cartoon.”
ROTFLMAO!
This car already clocked the wall in it’s first outing–ouch!
He will run his muscaros at the next meet.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ShOIcSS7wME
Clown car. But then it’s a funny.